Book Recommendation: Change Your Questions, Change Your Life by Marilee Adams

Next week I’m going to talk a little more in depth about what it is I do exactly, who I help, etc. But this week I’ve got another book recommendation for you. The book is by Marilee Adams and it is called “Change Your Questions, Change Your Life” which admittedly sounds very self-help and woo-woo. It is not though, or at least it didn’t read that way to me where I’m at right now.

It was recommended to me by a trusted friend and colleague, Mandee Bowsmith, so I gave it a try. This is my attempt to pay it forward since I too found it valuable. Thank you, Mandee and may you all benefit from her wisdom in the ways that I have.

What is this book about? Why should you read it or listen to it?

It is a book about how you can reframe situations, mental dialogue, from unproductive or limited to more open and opportunistic. As with my other book recommendation I don’t want to attempt a 200 word encapsulation of the book, but there is one method or tool I’ve found useful in my work as a coach.

It’s called question storming. We’re all familiar with brainstorming and the concept of how you throw out idea after idea without judgment or without questioning its validity. Separating the assessment stage from the idea generation stage is at the core of what makes it useful. No ideas are bad ideas.

In question storming you do the same thing only instead of ideas you throw out questions without wasting time on the answer yet. What don’t you know? What questions are there around this situation? You might find that one question opens up dozens more. Similar to brainstorming, at the end you can then turn around and assess the questions, categorize them, and determine which ones you can answer, which ones are worth answering, and so on.

It’s a really interesting exercise to go through, and part of why I think it’s so valuable is because there’s a subtle shift in how you look at the challenge when you’re not coming up with solutions, but you’re coming up with questions.

Compared to the book, this summary is crude of course, but it’s a quick read and an even quicker listen and it’s definitely worth your time. If you are interested in moving forward you can likely find it at your local library, or you can purchase it here through this affiliate link which helps support me and my business.

Once you have read this book, what jumped out at you? What did you find most valuable? Did this resonate with you or are you now going to question my next book, podcast, show, or movie recommendation?